Mondays are a great day to renew Family Health vows. Every Monday, you will find some healthy tip to help your family start the week off on a Healthy Note!

This week, do an extreme refrigerator make-over! Swap whole milk, sugary fruit drinks and sodas for low-fat or nonfat milk, no-sugar-added fruit juices, flavored seltzers and sparkling waters. Replace full-fat yogurts with low-fat or nonfat yogurt. Trade full-fat cheeses for reduced-fat or fat-free varieties. And, that goes for your freezer, too.

Thanks to Healthy Monday organization for sharing their Monday tips.

How one school is teaching children about nutrition and keeping it fun

Here is a great little article about a fun, healthy idea for schools. This school ended the school year by having a “Nutrition Adventures Day”. They played games such as a potato sack trivia relay, fruit and veggie ring toss and a food pyramid relay where they had to grab food items and race to put them in their correct section.

Other activities included making fruit sundaes.

The idea is great because it makes learning about nutrition fun. One of the teachers, Pam Porter, said that students love going to the Nutrition Adventures Day every year. The more nutrition education they got, the more of an impact it was having on the foods like liked to eat.

I love hearing about schools and communities finding creative ways to make nutrition fun.

Maybe this is something you can suggest to your school?

A study conducted in Boston analyzing infants and toddlers for vitamin D deficiency.

Okay, this is serious. The reason the study was initiated was because of a rise in vitamin D deficiency and rickets. The reports were coming from Alaska, Iowa, Nevada, California, North Carolina, Texas and Boston, among others. Vitamin D is necessary for bone and teeth development. Rickets is a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency with symptoms that include:

• bowed legs
• bowed arms
• bony bumps on ribcage
• seizures
• pain
• and other symptoms as well

According to this study, healthy infants and toddlers may have low levels of vitamin D,
1/3 of these kids appear to have evidence of reduced bone mineral content (on X-ray)
We are talking about vitamin D deficiency and rickets ( a disease that I have only heard about, never seen during my nursing practice)
The study involved 380 healthy children from the ages of 8 months to 24 months who visited their pediatrician during 2005-2007.

I think what was most concerning was the lack of symptoms. So the regular screen methods may not be enough.

So for you moms with young ones, this is something to talk with your doctor about. Here is the actual study, if you would like to review the methodology and conclusions.

Seven ways to encourage your teen to eat healthy.

This article provides a nice little reminder list of do’s and don’t for dealing with overweight teenagers or just helping your teenager stay at a healthy weight:

1. Don’t nag, don’t be the “food cop”. It usually doesn’t work and may just get you parents frustrated
2. Lead by example: this is interesting because we may think that our teenagers don’t pay attention to what we are doing since they are so wrapped in their own lives. But studies have shown if we are healthy, then they eventually will too. But forget studies for a minute, I can tell you that on more than one occasion my college kid will tell me something I told him as a teenager. So, somewhere inside, they are paying attention and listening.
3. Do it for the whole family: So don’t single out “healthy rules” for just one child. Regardless of weight, all children need to eat healthy in order to be healthy.
4. Make it easy. So for example, keep sliced fruit in the frig, make healthy food readily available.
5. Give them a say: some compromise in what food goes and stays will help them feel involved and part of the decision
6. Eat together: you will hear this a lot, but there is so much overwhelming evidence that eating together as a family helps the child in so many ways
7. Cut down the screen time: the best rule is 2 hours or less total, that includes TV and computer time

Let me know if any of these worked!

Safeway is expanding their Eating Right food line to reach out to children. Their new food line, called Eating Right Kids will feature the Warner Brother characters such as

• Bugs Bunny
• Tweetey
• Wile E. Coyote
• Daffy Ducks

The food will have over 100 food items to choose from. Some of the types of foods featured will be in the categories of:

• breakfast foods
• portable meals
• dairy
• snacks
• drinks

The food was formulated based on several agencies including the Department of Health.

The food line will be launched in 1700 Safeway stores across the US and Canada some time later this year.

Let’s see if we can begin to combine fast, convenience with the word nutrition.

(source: article from Business Week)

Using cooking as a way to introduce your child to new foods.

Here is a new approach. At least I have not thought of this.

Parents of picky eaters, don’t despair. Here is an article that discusses a different approach. Instead of arguing, bribing, begging and the following frustration that will most inevitably ensue, how about cooking with your child. In the course of cooking that recipe, put in the healthy ingredients. Just showing your child the new food and allowing them to interact with it through cooking, not eating.

This idea is comes from a book written based on the Canadian food guidelines but the principle is the same.

According to their book, The Good Food Book for Families, co-authored by a pediatrician,Cheryl Mutch and a teacher, Brenda Bradshaw, it could take up to ten times of exposure before a child will accept a new food. So don’t give up on broccoli just yet. We can use cooking to just get them use to seeing it, touching it and well, getting to know it.

The other key point the book discusses, is we are too rushed so we get trapped into the fastest, most convenient approach. Yeah, you know what I am going to say, fast food, easy food.

I like their idea, it makes it fun for the kids and interactive.

The company is out of Canada, but with the internet, information is only a click away.

One community joined together to create a really fun healthy day for the children through the age of five.

Here’s a great idea. A community “Picnic day,” a health faire for children through the age of five.

According to this article, here in Napa, CA, the community came together and gave children the opportunity to learn about nutrition, exercise and healthy living through interactive, fun play. They brought the Hands-On Health Mobile Van with is packed with games and exhibits that teach young children about being healthy.

The van drives up and down California all year long. There were other stations of activity like a reading and writing booth and play areas and face painting. These kind of events, begin to imprint the word “fun” and “healthy” in the same sentence.

That is what we need to do. Help kids associate fun with nutrition, fun with exercise, fun with health. We need to do what the high sugar, high fats foods do so well, market the fun.

I know these kind of events take planning but perhaps a suggestion to the local public health organization is the start. Send your public health organization the link to the article. You could be the founder of this type of event in your community!!

Several scary health predictions about this generation of children.

It’s sad to talk about this generation’s health future. No, it’s scary to talk about this generation’s future.

• A generation that may, for the first time ever, live a shorter lifespan than their parents.
• This is a generation that is already seeing diabetes, joint disease and heart disease as children.
• These are diseases that once were only associated with adults.

I am sad to think about their future since as an ICU nurse I cared for elderly patients who had these chronic conditions but only as an adult. I can’t even imagine what the ICU is going to look like when we have young adults in there with chronic diseases they have had for years…since they were kids.

This article discusses our country’s plight and struggle with childhood obesity. Here is some stats to think about:

• kids in elementary school are suffering with high blood pressure
• one out of three children are overweight in the United States
• less than 20% of children eat the required amount of fruits and vegetables
• up to 80% of obese teens will become obese adults

these are just some of the stats
But what is also a huge concern is what it is going to do to our health system, our economy to have all these sick adults.

• the cost of treating this children is expected to add billions of dollars to the US healthcare bill

To read more, here is the full article.

What is really sad is that it is avoidable.

We have to really be honest about nutrition education and promoting activity. We just need to start. Baby steps. Every positive step is a step to a healthier child.

We can make a difference. We just have to start today.

Bringing toddlers in the kitchen during cooking time could be a great time for a little nutrition lesson.

This article discusses the importance of teaching children, as young as 12 months old, the importance of healthy eating. Yup, toddlers.

Well, it is certainly what I believe. We need to instill in their little minds how important it is, how much fun it to be healthy … before they form their eating habits.

I think one of the fun things about toddlers and preschoolers is their vivid imagination. They are so easy to market to. We just have to make it fun. Put a big smile on, an enthusiastic voice and some excitement and the child is right there wanting to see what happens next. We can really use cooking time as a great opportunity to show kids healthy foods and how fun it is to be healthy, cook healthy, think healthy…be healthy!

I have my four year old niece here today and she loves to help me in the kitchen. We play “find the colors” with the fruits and vegetables. I find myself being a kid again, enjoying the littlest things.

The article also goes on to discuss a little stool, called the FunPod that allows kids to help in the kitchen at this young age. The FunPod is a stand-alone unit that brings the toddler to the worktop or kitchen counter top height. I am not endorsing this FunPod because I have not seen it or “played with it”. If you want more information, the FunPod is made by Little Helper.

Our refrigerator is sending messages to our children about what our family deems important.

This short article really is about us parents realizing how important our role is for kids.

Many schools around the country have or are beginning to adopt nutrition policies that prohibit high fat, high sugar foods from their vending machines. But, it is all for not, if the child comes home to a refrigerator or pantry full of junk foods.

Sometimes it is just a matter of throwing out the old stuff. I was just thinking about my refrigerator and yup, there it was 2 – 2 liter bottles of soda. I don’t like soda (anymore, I used to be a diet soda junkie but that was another life) but I had a family party 2 months ago. There it was still in my refrigerator. Anyone looking in my refrigerator would have easily come to the conclusion, this family drinks soda.

Other times, it is a matter of just throwing our the junk food. Getting a clean start and sending a new message to the kids.

So, think of your refrigerator and pantry as a “vending machine”. What’s in there? Is your vending machine sending the right message to your children? Just a thought.